Reeves warns harder choices to come on economypublished at 12:32 BST 29 September
The chancellor goes back to the government’s economic choices.
She says that every advance in bringing down the cost of living is a Labour achievement, mentioning interest rates cuts and lower mortgage costs.
Referring to Liz Truss’s mini-budget – which included £45bn of unfunded tax cuts, spooking financial markets and leading to mortgage rates soaring – Reeves says, “we will never do what the Conservatives did to ordinary working people”.
The chancellor says that when spending gets out of control, and market confidence is lost, it is felt “immediately” in rising prices for essentials and rising interest rates.
There is “nothing progressive, nothing Labour, about government using one in every £10 of public money it spends on financing debt interest”, she says.
“In the months ahead, we will face further tests, with the choices to come made all the harder by harsh global headwinds and the long-term damage done to our economy, which is becoming ever clearer.
“Our first year in power was about fixing the foundations. Our second must be about building a renewed economy for a renewed Britain.”
She adds: “There will be choices to take our country forward, and
whatever tests come our way, whatever tests come my way, I make
this commitment to you: I will take no risks with the trust
placed in us by the British people.”
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For context: The Conservatives have disowned the Truss
mini-budget, with shadow chancellor Mel Stride saying in a speech in June that the party would never again make “promises we cannot afford”.
